When The Snuts released their second album Burn The Empire in 2022, they went on to play it almost in its entirety at Neighbourhood Festival the following evening at Manchester’s Albert Hall. But this was after a dispute with their record company, Parlophone Records, over the release date of the album. The band won’t need to have such worries now they have set up their own record label, Happy Artist Records, and have independently released their third album Millennials, which is thirty minutes of electro-pop inspired music.
The album opens with The Snuts‘ big summer 2023 release Gloria, a feel-good track that leaves good vibes long after the song finishes, with a catchy chorus and clever guitar riffs that leave you hooked. Vocalist Jack Cochrane excels during this one, as he sings about finding love in the supermarket “When I met you at the Tesco’s/Fighting for a TV, lets go”. Millionaires has a more poppy feel to it and is another one with a simple, catchy chorus, which will no doubt go down well in a live setting.
As Cochrane proclaims in the lyrics to Yoyo “He is up and down like a Yoyo” his vocals are slightly distorted, but the feel good vibe is still there and the band were perhaps experimenting with some new sounds. A big factor with leaving a record company is whether the same heights can be reached in production quality – we think The Snuts have overcome this hurdle quite well on Millennials. Album producer Scott Anderson is a close friend of the band and they have collectively created a record that is upbeat and has happy vibes throughout. It will quickly become a go-to album for their army of fans.
NPC (Non player character) offers an insight into how technology affects our daily lives and this track will definitely go down well live, with a chorus that fans will just love to sing along to during the three minutes of upbeat, electro-pop and distortion. Definitely one of the highlights of the album.
Dreams flies out at you immediately with a drum and bass backdrop, working well alongside Cochrane’s raspy vocals and the clever lyrics “You’re Romer than Paris, Your prettier too/I must be dreaming baby, how did I find you?” This is maybe as close to a love song that we will get from The Snuts!
The album ends on a high with Circles. At just over four minutes it’s the longest track on the album, and the acoustic guitar from Joe McGillveray is a standout feature alongside more skillful vocals from Cochrane.
Millennials was a slow burner for us, on first listen there were only a couple of tracks that jumped out, but having played the album a few times there is not a bad song on there. Perhaps a bit short at 30 minutes, but that seems to be the norm for a lot of bands nowadays. These four West Lothian guys have been friends since childhood and have created a lot of music together throughout their ten year journey. We can only hope that The Snuts continue to make music as good as this.
9/10
Standout Tracks: Gloria, NPC, Circles
For Fans Of: The Lathums, Vistas, The Sherlocks
Written by: Alan Brown
